


Love Is An Illusion

by ChaseDawg12



Series: The White Rose Oneshot Anthology [5]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, F/F, Flashbacks, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Love Confessions, Psychological Drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:27:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22603957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaseDawg12/pseuds/ChaseDawg12
Summary: Cinder has kidnapped Ruby Rose, and fighting her is not an option. But, how dark is everyone willing to go to free her?
Relationships: Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee
Series: The White Rose Oneshot Anthology [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1630600
Comments: 5
Kudos: 39





	Love Is An Illusion

**Author's Note:**

> First solo work in a little bit. I guess psych horror is my thing now? Ah well, hope y'all like it.

“What the hell do you suggest we do, Weiss, just give them the relics?!”

Weiss couldn’t even bear to look Blake in the face. That was exactly her idea.

“Oh my god, you actually want to hand over the relics. This is unbelievable.”

“Well what do you want me to do, Blake? Let them keep Ruby hostage?”

The room fell deadly quiet. Of  _ course _ they weren’t going to just leave Ruby with Cinder. But what were they going to do? The only “peaceful”, of course in practice only, solution was what was laid before them in Cinder’s ultimatum.  _ Bring me all of your relics if you want to see your precious leader Ruby Rose ever again _ . Of course it wasn’t the most important detail of the situation by any stretch, but they all agreed that ever since that message hit everyone’s scrolls about 5 minutes ago, Weiss had been acting…  _ different.  _

“Yang, come on.  _ You _ of all people should be able to see the value in the life of your own sister, no? Can’t you talk some sense into your partner here?”

“Partner? Who said anything about being partners? We’re friends sure… but like partners? Never!” Yang said with a constant nervous laugh, as her eyes darted around the room, looking everywhere except where she would have to make eye contact with anyone in the room. This was until she caught Blake in the corner of her eye trying to hide her clearly hurt expression with her sad face and curled up ears. 

_ Great, another night of “talking things out” once this nightmare is over _ , she thought. 

“Anyways... my point stands. Ruby is of the utmost importance right now, and I’ll be damned if anyone stops me from getting this done however possible”

“And you’re insane if you think we’re just gonna let you hand over the relics to Cinder for your cuddle buddy.”

“ _ Excuuuuse  _ me, Mr. Arc? How  _ dare _ you first of all think any romantic feelings are at play in this situation, and second of all assume we are a thing. She is my battle partner and my best friend and she is the answer we have and need in order to defeat Salem and rid Remnant of this curse once and for all, and you want to throw that chance away over RELICS?”

“You mean the relics we also need to complete this quest?” a quiet voice asked. 

Weiss turned her head toward him only so she could stare daggers at him. The utter nerve of the men of this team today! 

“You know what? How about YOU take over the planning, Ren. I’m sure you’re so smart and wise and can think of such a superior plan than me.”

All of a sudden, they all stopped yelling at each other, if only for a brief moment. They all heard skipping, with a set of smaller footsteps following slowly behind. They had no idea what was coming, but they all prepared their weapons for whatever could be approaching them.

“What in the hell do  _ you two,  _ of all people, want?”

********

“Ms. Rose, I’m sure after all your eye magic every time we met, you thought you had my number, didn’t you? Always the victorious hero, paraded, celebrated, being responsible for ending the danger. Well, for every hero who lives forever, there’s a villian living in the shadows brooding for longer. And so, here we are. You, sitting there, all bound and blinded…” she had blinded her eyes rather than gag her mouth for obvious reasons from their past, “...and here I am standing before you, holding your fate in my hand. I could crush it in seconds, toy with it for weeks, it’s truly in my control.”

“Go ahead and kill me Cinder. See if I care. The lives of Remnant are more important to me and they always will be.”

“Oh, silly child, it’s too bad your friends won’t see it this purehearted way. I’m sure at least one of them is on their way to play hero… or should I say heroine.”

“What are you...I... You don’t know my friends, they would nev-”

With a loud knock, Ren busted through the door and into the room with Cinder and Ruby waiting. “Well, not what I was expecting, but you know I’ve always been a fan of surprises,” Cinder remarked. Ren tilted his head in confusion, then silently held up a relic, then began skipping on his way to Cinder.  _ This is… odd _ , Cinder thought _. _ The closer he got, the more she understood, however, as she noticed that Ren’s eyes were pink and brown. Neo had used yet another illusion trick to achieve excellence. Perfect. She was becoming such a valuable asset to the whole cause, in spite of the two of them’s persistent arguing and fights about priorities. “Excellent choice on the costume, Neo. Ren is the quiet one of the group in most situations, so I’m presuming that your mute state was quite beneficial for this fight?” Ren’s head nodded in agreement with the question, a smirk dancing across his features.

“However, I’m sure that you know this, but I’m a little disappointed that you only came out of there with one relic,” Cinder said as that was responded to with yet another classic Neo eye roll. Cinder had become way too used to Neo’s eye rolls. She couldn’t even count how many times she had gotten them since they became partners in crime, and every time it got absolutely more and more annoying. Thankfully for Cinder, their time was almost done together and they would never have to deal with the other ever again. Something seemed off about that eye roll, though. Cinder had memorized that single expression down to the smallest detail due to the pure frequency of it, and there was something off here. She just couldn’t place the issue on it quite yet. She studied Neo long and hard, taking in everything from her expressions to her mannerisms. Eventually, the interrogator realized a slip up that was exactly what she needed to prove she wasn’t going crazy. She walked over to “Neo dressed up as Ren”, crossing her arms along the way. “So Neo, how did you manage to only come away with one relic, exactly?

“Well, I-” Ren went wide-eyed as he immediately knew his potentially fatal mistake.

_ Shit.  _

“That’s what I thought.” Cinder evilly smirked, before summoning a wave of fire and slamming the exposed Ren into the wall hard enough to render him unconscious at minimum a half an hour. "Colored contact lenses. Nice touch you crazy hunters and huntresses….but you're gonna need more than that to fool me in the slightest if you even want a prayer of getting this-"

"Cinder Fall, wait. Please. We tried to trick you and failed. We surrender. We don’t want to fight a maiden over such a small conflict."

_ Oh no, why is she here?  _ thought Ruby

_ Ah, exactly who I was looking for,  _ declared Cinder in her head

“Ms. Schnee. Just the woman I wanted to see. I figured you would be the most rational of the group, considering you stood up to your aristocratic family. Come in. Lock the door on the way in. Don’t need any more surprises if we want these negotiations to go smoothly.”

“WEISS, IT’S A TRAP, TRUST ME!”

“SILENCE you DOLT. I….*mhm* We need you… so you’re getting freed.”

“Weiss, PLEASE, I can get out on my own. You  _ cannot _ give her the relics. You have to think like a huntress. Think about the greater good. Do it for the people.”

“Ruby, I-”

“If you can’t do it for them, then…do it for me. It’s what I want. Don’t give the relics to Cinder. Please.”

Weiss was absolutely  _ clueless  _ as to what she should do. She looked like she was trying to stay strong, but looked extremely subject to crack any second. She tried to hide the tears she seemed shocked to even have in the first place at all, nevermind having them over her red-haired companion.

“Don’t you worry your head, Ms. Schnee. Your partner will be transferred to you in safe condition as soon as you hand over the relics into my possession,” Cinder reaffirmed, as she dragged Ms. Rose to her seat near Cinder’s and ripped off her blindfold.

_ Welcome to your front row seat _ .

“Weiss... please, do it for me.... I-”

“I’d do  _ anything _ for you Ruby,” she emphasized as she picked up the relics to hand over, “and if that means sacrificing the relics to guarantee your health and safety, I’m doing it in a heart-”

As if heart was Cinder’s code word in this sick, cruel negotiation game, she laughed and, just like a few months ago, shoved a giant summoned arrow straight through the silver-haired huntress’ heart, taking her breath away and making her drop to her knees.

“WEISS, NO”

Cinder had to have mentally snapped over  _ something _ , because this vile woman had begun laughing hysterically over this plan as she walked around the table to stand behind the fallen Schnee.

“Go ahead Ruby. Use your silver eyes. They surely will incinerate me to ash this time around. But, I’ll burn happy knowing this image will burn  _ deep  _ in your mind, and I will know in my afterlife that I have emotionally and mentally scarred you as deep and as much as you have done to me from those eyes. You have ruined my existence on this wretched realm, Ruby Rose, so now I destroy your hope as my final act on this planet.”

Ruby was already sobbing and screaming Weiss’ name. Trying, hoping for  _ anything _ . With every word Cinder spoke, she pulled it through a little deeper, twisted it a little harder, flushing out the life of the woman Cinder knew Ruby held dearest of them all. Ruby could do nothing, chained up as Cinder left her. All she could do was struggle to be free as she watched what was almost like an ocean being drained, as life fled from the big blue eyes of Weiss with each passing moment.

Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore. An unholy, no, ungodly shrill scream was unleashed by the redheaded huntress. The explosion that burst through her eyes at a rapid rate engulfed the entire room. Cinder, as she had thought, vanished into ash. The chains holding her back snapped, and all Ruby could do was collapse onto the floor and ball her eyes out as she slowly, weakly crawled to her now dead best friend.

_ Why… why her… why now.  _ These thoughts were the only things she thought about as she sobbed all around the corpse non-stop. It was only 5 days until it… until her 20th birthday. She had worked so hard to work up the courage to tell her…  _ everything _ . But now, now she never could. She gathered herself for a few minutes. Maybe she could tell the corpse and her spirit would hear it in heaven. Her snow haired angel would hear it. She would learn. She would know.

She would know how much she deeply loved her.

Ruby began trying to recall everything she had been practicing.

********

_ *Mhm..* ok so uh, take 7 of practicing speech for Weiss Schnee’s 20th birthday party, and ac- _

_ *knock knock* _

_ Uncle Qrow, I’m practicing what you told me to try next week, tell Yang I’ll try her cookies in like 5 minutes _

_ Anyways… oh yeah. Take 7. Action _

_ *mhm* Ok. Hello fellow family and friends of the wonderful Ms. Schnee. It is an honor to be here this evening to celebrate the two decades of life of my best friend in the world, Ms. Weiss Schnee. Let’s give it up for a second for the best partner I’ve ever worked with _

_ Ok and then there will be applause. I’ll applaud too. Blah blah blah… _

_ Now, I hope you don’t mind if I speak directly to Weiss in this public setting for a few moments. Weiss, I just want you to know how much you truly mean to me. I’ve been pondering over some things for a long time and I decided that now of all times would be the best to lay it all on the line. *deep breath* Here goes nothing. _

_ When we first met, Weiss was a cold-hearted hoity toity rich girl who showed no sympathy to anyone… at least that’s how a lot of people viewed her the first couple of weeks. But I didn’t. I’ve been told I’m an optimist, and I’m ok with that. I like seeing the good side in people, and that’s what I saw in Weiss. I saw the edge on her, but deep down, I saw what others neglected. I saw a girl who was love starved. Affection starved. She wanted love, but the father she was born into the family of made her think that wasn’t allowed. That she wasn’t allowed to show emotion or want love and affection. That she had to be all proper just for the Schnee name. _

_ Well, I cracked that wall, and tore it down. At least, I was the first one to do so it felt like. I showed Weiss it was ok to be touched and loved and supported and adored, at least I, uh, hope I did. And she responded with becoming a whole new person, and that person became the bestest friend and partner I could ever ask for. _

_ Anyone who sees us together thinks we’re the perfect pair. And I agree, we are the best duo. Sorry sis, love you, haha. _

_ Hopefully they’ll laugh at that… _

_ Anyways, yeah. To every great pairing, there was us right up there with them. She’s the milk to my cookies, the PB to my J, the Blake to my Yang *wink wink*, the yin to my….. *scribbling on side of paper* remember to think of a new analogy not involving the word yang. _

_ The…. white petals… to my rose? Does that make sense? I’ll figure it out later. _

_ Anyways, with that being said, I’ve kinda been thinking in private a lot the last few weeks, and I realized something _

_ Weiss, ever since I laid eyes on you that first day at Beacon, something was special about you. For the longest time, I thought the solution to that first day conundrum was that we were bound to be together as huntress partners. But… I think there’s more to it than that. _

_ Every day, I find more and more things to treasure about you, inside and out. From your gorgeous big blues to your luxurious silver locks… from your protective side to your soft side to your caring side to your backsi- *scribbling out words* NO Ruby, this is a PUBLIC SETTING. No thinking about Weiss’... *nervous laughter* anyways… _

_ So, I guess what I’m trying to say is… Weiss Schnee, allow my birthday gift to you be my love and affection, and in return do me the honor of being my girlfriend? _

********

_ All that practice… all those words… wasted _

“R-Ruby?”

_ Oh my god, her spirit HAD heard it. _

“We-Weiss?? Oh god Weiss, I’m so sorry. I should’ve told you sooner. I should’ve told you when I could… now… now you’re in heav...heaven and can only process this information and do nothing with it… I’m so sorry…  _ I’m so sorry _ …”

Ruby felt arms wrap around her after she began sobbing again. She tensed up really hard and was ready to fight Salem herself, before she calmed down due to her drained energy and something about the arms feeling...warm... _ familiar _ .

“I’m right here, you dolt.”

“W-We-Weiss???”

The arms tightened, making Ruby feel even safer.

“Yes… yes it’s me… god  _ I’m so sorry _ ”

“For… what?”

“For agreeing to that god forsaken plan… We were trying to figure out how to get you out of here in the safest way possible… and then Neo… damn NEO walks in with Emerald in tow, and they explain to us that they have a plan to get Cinder, because Neo had gotten sick of Cinder and didn’t want her to get the spotlight. So, she hatched a plan and honed her skills the past few months so that her illusions wouldn’t shatter on impact. But, she needed vocals for her illusions, and that’s where Em came in. So they came to us, and proposed the plan to create an illusion that would trigger Cinder’s ego in a way that would then trigger an immense reaction from your silver eyes… therefore killing Cinder… God this plan was so  _ fucked _ . I’m so sorry...”

“So… Neo… is good now?”

“Sadly, no. I'm guessing, considering that Em chased after Neo  _ pretty _ angrily and we’ve now lost both of them, Neo convinced her this plan was a way to trick all of us and not to kill Cinder, as Em would’ve never agreed to that. But, Neo, she genuinely wanted a temporary truce… she just wanted a temporary alliance for a bigger goal of hers for the time being, but she will be back.”

“I... I don't care about any of that right now…. I'm just so glad you're ok…."

"God, I'm so  _ sorry… _ "

"Shh… don't be… you're ok so… it's ok"

"R-Ruby?"

"Yeah?"

"Did… did you mean everything you said?"

Ruby's face grew red with embarrassment, totally forgetting that she had said everything out loud.

"Yes… I'm so-"

Ruby's apology was cut short by being spun around, where she saw her partners big, gorgeous blue eyes full of life again, with tears starting to form in them.

"Don't apologize, you dolt. I love you too, and I'd love nothing more than to be yours."

What followed was the longest, happiest, most tear-filled hug either of them had ever had the pleasure of having.

Love wasn't an illusion… love was real, and it had unified two soulmates that day.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> One day I'll write something that isn't a oneshot
> 
> Anyways, as usual leave comments if you have thoughts and kudos if you liked


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